There was a Time for us
by Sonamylover444
Summary: The Gears have lost the war against the Locust Horde; Tired and used up, they have nothing left to do but wait for imminent death by the hands of the Locust. This is just a possible ending to the GoW Series.


It was a dark and depressing evening as the Gears mounted up and headed back to the barracks.

Pelruan was a peaceful place during the night in the summer; fireflies lit the way back as they flew around in the air. The breeze was warm and gentle and nothing seemed to break the silence except for heavy, clunky boots against gravel and broken pavement.

Marcus looked ahead of him as if he could see for miles, his lancer cradled in his arms which he rarely did, but he couldn't seem to find the strength right then to carry it single-handedly.

His eyes seemed to pierce through the dark night as stars gleamed in the sky shining down on the grizzled gears. Tired and fatigued as they stirred and struggled to stay awake.

Baird had his shotgun thrown over his shoulder like he was carrying a heavy sack. Cole just dragged his rifle on the ground at his side. No one cared right then…

Dom walked next to Marcus, matching his pace and even copying his footsteps on accident. But he didn't even notice; he just looked at the ground staring directly at his booted feet

It was as devastating as anything could be. They couldn't win. They were outnumbered now.

Soldiers numbered just barely in the hundreds now, maybe not even over 90. The Locusts could be counted at thousands and beyond; all they do is reproduce and fight. That's it…

There weren't any more women except Bernie and Anya. They were all dead, even Sam and Alex were dead and gone now.

Suddenly the realization of it all came flowing back to the squad. It was weird but they all stopped dead in their tracks at the same time.

Marcus was the first to look up at the sky and close his eyes to try and find some peace. He knew he would never be able to find it again.

Dom walked off to the side and sat down against and old building that had been destroyed in all the destruction of the island. All that was left was a burnt out frame and a few shattered walls.

His lancer dropped when he sat; he had just let go of it. Like everything else he had to repress just to keep going.

All the civilians were dead now too. The island was vacant except for the remaining Gears who inhabited it. Sera had been lost… everything the CoG fought for was now controlled by the Locust. How had they lost it all?

You could never lose everything could you? If you were still breathing, you still had something.

Baird leaned against Cole, but he wasn't doing it to be annoying, he was just so dazed that he could barely comprehend where he was right then. The poor bastard had been hit with an ink and barely made it out; if it hadn't been for Cole…

…He'd of been dead…

Baird turned his head, cheek squished on Cole's shoulder. Looking him straight in the eye with a cold, venomous stare that only he could pull off.

"Why the hell did you save me? Why didn't you just let me die?" He was as delusional as could be.

"We have nothing, what's one more soldier? What if I wanted to die, maybe I wanted to so I didn't have to be shot in the ass by a Locust."

He was right in so many ways in that moment, and something filled in both his eyes. Something a man never did.

Tears spilled down his cheeks but he didn't make a sound. Cole knew he was tired as fuck and so was he. He was the only one who saw his friend crying right then.

"I don't want be here anymore. We're going to die, those bastards are going to kill us and take Sera. We have nothing to fight with worth the risk anymore."

Baird's voice was caught between a scared and struggled tone and a bit of a high-pitched tone that you got when you cried.

"Baby, we aren't dead till the last member of this squad is shot and killed on the spot." Cole knew he was as far fetched from the truth as he could have been. But that was just Cole.

Dom's hand played in the dirt as his fingers marked random squiggles in the dusty terrain. His eyes were lifeless as Marcus took a seat next to him.

Everyone's earpieces rang deep inside their ear as Anya's voice buzzed in on the other end. She sounded disappointed and just as tired as they were.

"Hey guys, are you still heading back?"

"Nah, We're just gonna hang here for the night." Marcus replied in the lowest tone he could muster.

For a moment the line was silent and so was everything else in the world. As raw as it seemed, for once the silence was the best sound anyone could have heard. It used to make you eerie, but now when there was quiet you took it as a small treasure and held it for that single moment.

Something precious was something you never wanted to let go of.

"Alright Marcus." Anya finally replied. "I..I…" She started to say something else in place of the silence. That was the other thing Marcus found precious anymore; Anya.

"Marcus… we don't have long, if you plan on staying in the town tonight…well, at least let me help you sleep."

He didn't understand what she meant. Baird and Cole suddenly found interest in her words and wondered as well. Dom just continued to sit and draw in the dirt with the same dead look on his face.

"I… I have a song that my mother used to sing to me as a child. A lullaby."

She had never talked about anything so out of character. It was like she wasn't Anya Stroud; Lieutenant and commander of Control anymore, it was more like she was an actual person, who could move and feel, and had a being, and wasn't just some voice on the other end of a radio.

"Anya…" Marcus started.

"Alright, go ahead…" He said whispering as softly as possible.

Anya took a breath; she knew everyone with a working earpiece would hear her but she didn't care at all about that.

She drew another breath and started.

_"It's a gift to be simple, it's a gift to be free..."_

Her voice rung smoothly in everyone's ears, it was relaxing to hear such a soft voice.

Cole and Baird finally sat themselves down next to Marcus and Dom as they listened while she continued. Baird's head still lay on Cole's shoulder as his eyelids slowly shut.

_"It's a gift to come down where you outta be." _Her voice changed to match how the lullaby went.

"...and when you find yourselves in the place just right, we'll be in the valley of love and delight."/i

Anya's voice had never been so beautiful to listen to till now, she had always been a great stress relief, but now they were in sheer peace.

_"When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we will not be ashamed. To turn, turn; will be our delight, till by turning, turning; we come 'round right."_

Anya kept singing and as she did Cole's eyes begin to water. He could remember this song being his lullaby as well, his momma used to sing it to him when he was young just as she had been. It all came back to him now, slowly and painfully. But he couldn't help but feel relaxed at the same time.

She repeated the same lyrics over again. Marcus wondered for a moment, with eyes closed, what other Gears were thinking right then. Dom started to nod off and so did Baird who was breathing heavier than usual, he might have already been asleep long before.

_"When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we will not be ashamed. To turn, turn; will be our delight, till by turning, turning; we come 'round right."_

Cole sat there with tear stained cheeks just staring ahead of him. His eyes where tired and finally he shut them.

When she had finished her song, Marcus grunted and sighed, exhausted. His eyes had been closed the entire time.

Suddenly the radio crackled and Anya's voice sounded distressed and painful; her tone had changed immensely. He could hear other voices in the background; snarls and growls were what he could make out.

He started to get a sense of being afraid, he didn't know what the hell was happening. Locust were everywhere now…

"Marcus, I love you... "Anya's voice rang in again, and then a gunshot was heard as it pierced the silence and broke the night into small, fragile pieces.

Every one jumped a bit and right there Marcus knew he had lost her….

The growling became louder and so did the snarling, he could even hear a faint laugh. It was menacing, evil, hateful and full of sin.

"Anya… ANYA!" Marcus sprang to his feet and started to run off to his right. He was miles away from the Naval base and from Anya herself. He slowed down realizing he wouldn't make it.

"Anya…" He sank to his knees and looked back to see he had only gone a few yards.

His eyes swelled with tears as he screamed to the top of his lungs.

"GODAMNIT! YOU BASTARDS! FUCK!" He cussed to whom ever could hear him. He wanted the world to know his anger and hatred. He found himself suddenly sobbing quietly; it was just the same when Carlos had died.

When he gathered himself, he crawled back and lay down next to Dom again. He shut his eyes and clutched his lancer tighter then he needed to.

He wanted to die right then; he wanted to disappear, but he also wanted to kill every locust there was, and even the ones that were already dead.

The bastards had got what they wanted; they won. They got Sera. But what they had won was a desolate wasteland destroyed from countless years of war and fighting.

He realized now that the only thing he had fought for was his family and lost friends; for the thrill and rush that war gave you, to feel alive. And he had done it all. But what they had been fighting for had been lost all along. They hadn't saved a damn thing.

And now Anya was gone; the locust must have found the base and took them hostage and killed whoever was there.

_I should have never left her alone there. She would've been safer taking her chances out here._

Marcus had never been so numb in all his life, he had lost the thing he loved… and he had never said it to her face, and now he never could. It burned him inside, deep down to the core. That hollow core where his last little bit of feeling remained unscathed.

Once again, his tired swollen eyes closed and he sighed deeply. The rest of his team was asleep and he was just as quickly as his mind drifted off to a world even he knew would never be real. Everything that he had left was right there by his side.

_Only in your dreams, they say, but when those dreams are surrounded by nightmares, fears, dying hope; you have nothing left. And when you wake, the monsters will still be searching for you. And they will find you._

Finally Marcus slipped into what he wanted to be an endless sleep, but he knew he would still wake up to the hell he had to face everyday now.

The sun shined down brightly as its rays burned on Marcus' skin. When his eyes opened he felt the sting of pain from last nights hell. He squinted from the suns gleam and he used his hand to shade his eyes. When he could see he saw a figure right in front of him, and then the cold barrel of a pistol against his temple.

"You're awake, excellent." A voice said; it was familiar and feminine.

The Goddamn Locust queen…

She was in full armor as she casted herself over Marcus like a mighty warrior who had just thrown her enemy down. She had drones behind her and a few Theron Guards.

"My dear boy, you have lost this war for good; and now, everyone you know is dead."

Marcus peered over to his left where he had left his group last night. When he looked his eyes became wide.

Dom was on the ground face up, body drenched in blood. His right arm missing and his body bruised and beaten. Marcus' mouth was a gap.

"What the hell did you do to him you?" He screamed up at her. When he looked back he saw Cole on top of Baird's body, which was facing down in the dirt.

"Your blonde friend was dead when we found him, but the black one. Well, we won't tell you."

Marcus could only look her straight in the eye but he didn't move, he didn't know why he wasn't grabbing at her throat right then. If they were dead, what good would it do for him?

"I have an obligation for you Marcus. I won't kill you if you join the horde and rule by my side as my advisor, too bad Skorge didn't make it…"

Marcus still just stared at her with that same hatred he had in his eyes. He drew a breath. "I'll never fucking join you down in that hell hole, you have Sera now, and I can fucking die now." He snapped back with all his energy.

"You know, a mother's love runs deep my dear… but this one's, well, it just doesn't run quite that deep." Myrrah's voice was a kind as it could have been, but it echoed in Marcus' head like an overplayed song.

"You can't be, you're fucking crazy."

"Oh, I might be Marcus, but I do know my own child like the back of my hand."

He was lost and confused in more ways then he ever wanted to be. He didn't know what the hell to believe now.

"You can't be… She ran away."

"You mean I ran away, I am Elaine Fenix… but I am now Queen Myrrah of the planet Sera."

She knew his mothers name, which had to mean something.

"You're a brainwashed mother fucker then."

"Very well." Myrrah cocked the pistol and slowly pushed her forefinger on the trigger.

_BOOM..._

Blood splattered the walls and earth's surface. The ring of the shot seemed to be heard for miles. The world had been won; everyone had died. Marcus' body lay lifeless on the ground next to the rest of his squad. Everything that they had fought for slowly seeped down below to a greater world that had overcome them.

The breeze blew gently as Queen Myrrah returned the pistol to her side. She started to laugh. The same laugh Marcus had heard on the radio. The same menacing, evil laugh that echoed throughout the broken world. It was full of unforgiving sin and hatred.

She slowly turned to her troops as they attentively listened. Her voice roared through the wind "My children, the world is now rightfully ours; we have defeated the ground walkers, we have won our prize." She took a few steps and soon her loyal troops followed.

Her footsteps left prints in the dirt as she walked on quietly.

_This day belongs to us, and the days beyond this one. We are now eternally at peace and we shall not be desecrated beyond our place of lying. For the hell beneath is now far away and unknown to us now, but we shall never forget what we had fought for, and we had lost all the same. _

_...For in hell, innocence is spared, and the righteous is lifted away. And we've always known that death was our only way to escape._

_...And we have escaped this world... for the better._


End file.
